Just bought - 2014 Spyder RT-S SE6 77K miles with RT-622 trailer

[Peter Aawen]

I don't think I'd go down the path of using 'aggessive' toe-in, altho I can see why you might. Buuut, I've been there, done that, pretty much still got the pucker stains on the RT's seat to show for it!! A little toe in, even maybe 3mm of total toe, yeah maybe, but certainly no more! Besides, this could also be due to worn suspension bushes... on the frame end especially, they are pretty agricultural in there & difficult to maintain - I don't think you can even add grease to yours, but if I don't add grease every 3,000 miles or so on my 2013 that still has grease zerks, then things start to get a little wobbly & the wear rate accelerates markedly! But don't exclude the possibility of it being one or more dodgy ball-joints, the OE ball-joints are cheap placcy crap that many are finding they need to replace frequently.... (there is an a/mkt supplier of much better quality/race spec units in Austria, but I don't have the details handy atm, sorry. )

However, what you've described above does sound a whole LOT to me like you may have a DPS doing dodgy things - possibly because it's either on it's way out or maybe because your battery is getting a liitle tired! Your alternator is probably more than capable of managing everything you can throw at it normally, ie, drivinng straight, and maybe even when you (gently??) initiate a turn, but the DPS is a Power Whore, and as the turn tightens up &/or you feed more throttle or speed in, the power demand from the DPS/Electric Power Steering increases exponentally, putting 'peak load &/or reserve power' demands on the battery to iron out the peaks & troughs - and if the battery is a tad tired so that it can't readily keep up with the noticeably increased load demands that entails, then the DPS can either add heaps of assist suddenly, or drop power assist suddenly, producing exactly what you describe! Do you really need to ask me how I know that this DOES happen?! So maybe get your battery load tested & if there's ANY sign of it starting to get a little tired, fit a new good quality battery! BTW, if your DPS is dodgy/on its way out, there's not much you can do besides replace the entire unit - BRP have very carefully made them 'non-serviceable' except by replacement, and I don't believe there's anyone who's successfully been able to replace a torque sensor yet!

Still, while I'm on a roll peppering you with alternative thoughts, I'd be looking at your tires sooner rather than later - quite a few of the OE front tires made around 2014/2015 were REALLY dodgy, altho they do seem to have improved marginally since; many OE tires of that vintage wore out spectacularly rapidly & we saw a lot of complaints here on the Forum and elsewhere, but while it didn't get quite the same degree of public complaint, there were also many that suffered from belt separation &/or delamination, both of which might contribute to the handling characteristics you describe, even if the tires do still have reasonable tread! Are you sure you can't borrow a set of rims shod with any tire but an OE Spec Kenda?? Anyone nearby prepared to offer?? Even just a half an hour with a set of 'real' auto tires up front running at 16-ish psi should be very revealing, and might just save you a lot of time chasing your tail needlessly looking into other things. Might not too, but if I was a betting man I'd still put the odds on you being quite impressed with the improvements 'real' tires can bring!

Is that enough with the alternative ideas already?? Over to you!